Two passengers were denied boarding on an Air France flight from Paris to Johannesburg, South Africa, last because their passports were not ‘machine readable’.
The regulations, published as part of the new Immigration Amendment Act, requires that passports be ‘machine readable’.
Where passports are not machine readable, there are two provisions under which a foreigner may be admitted into or depart from SA:
-He or she is from a foreign state that is issuing machine readable passports and has not completely phased out he non-machine readable passports; and
-His or her passport was issued after 24 November 2005 and its date of expiry is before 24 November 2015.
Andre Laget, MD of Akilanga, told Tourism Update the passengers denied boarding were part of a group travelling to SA. Laget said that the South African Embassy in Paris was unaware of the regulation on Tuesday, when the incident took place.
Laget says the regulation itself is not problematic, but the lack of communication is. He points out that an incident like this costs the trade money, adding that it is easily avoidable if proper communication is carried out.
Laget adds that French passports, like many European passports, are valid for a period of 10 years. “Unfortunately people that do not travel often will not fill up all the pages in their passport before the 10 year period is up,” he says.
SA Tourism on Friday sent out a notice to members of the trade in France clarifying the new passport regulations.
The full Immigration Amendment Act can be accessed here.